The Henry Tax Review - the most recent of many fundamental tax reviews!
Remember – RATS, ANTS, Ralph? And there were some significant changes in 1988 to superannuation but we can’t remember the acronym for those changes.
Before even RATS in 1985 (the Hawke/Keating Tax Summit) there was the Asprey Report.
In many respects the Asprey Report was truly the most fundamental review; it recommended taxing fringe benefits and broadening the tax base to tax capital gains and consumption.
| RATS | gave us Fringe Benefits Tax and Capital Gains Tax |
| 1998 | taxation of super earnings |
| ANTS | GST |
| RALPH | Consolidation (and almost entity taxation and tax value method |
How will the Henry Tax Review rate? Possibly not significantly; the big gaps in the revenue base have been closed (fringe benefits, capital gains, consumption). The amount of tax raised can only be reduced if the Review is prepared to tackle the big expenditure items – which is unlikely.
Most likely, the review will not live up to its expectations and will skip the big issues to tinker around the edges.
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